Pages

Saturday, 5 August 2017

Goa extends RERA deadline till October on delay in notifying rules

The central
Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act (RERA) came into effect on May 1,
2017, exactly a year after it was passed by Parliament

PANAJI: A delay in notifying the Real Estate
(Regulation and Development) Act (RERA) rules for Goa has once again delivered
a setback to consumers who were waiting for RERA to be enforced before buying
homes. The BJPgovernment on Sunday extended the deadline to October for ongoing
projects to register with RERA, even though the central government and other
states have clearly refused to grant an extension.

The central Real Estate (Regulation and Development)
Act (RERA) came into effect on May 1, 2017, exactly a year after it was passed
by Parliament. As per the Act, developers, projects and agents had till July 31
to mandatorily register their projects with the Real Estate Regulatory
Authority.

Any unregistered project would be deemed to be
unauthorized by the regulator, but since the state government has failed to
notify the rules and the authority as on date, the ministry of urban
development has given Goan builders additional time to register with RERA.

TOI had reported on July 15, that the Goa government
was likely to accept the demands from builders and extend the deadline by three
months.

“Builders and promoters can submit their applications
of new and ongoing projects in the prescribed form which can be downloaded from
the website. For ongoing projects, applications for registration will be
accepted upto October 31, 2017, without levy of penalty,” designated Real
Estate Regulatory Authority Sudhir Mahajan said.

The central law, which was enacted to regulate the
real estate sector and secure the interest of consumers, states that no builder
can advertise, market or sell a plot, apartment or building without registering
the real estate project with the Real Estate Regulatory Authority.

A builder has to pay Rs 10 per sqm of area to the
regulator as registration fees for the project.

Goa is one of the few states in the country which has
failed to notify the RERA rules. Officials said, the RERA rules for Goa have
been framed along the lines of the regulations notified by Maharashtra, which
has partially diluted the penalties for non-compliance by builders.

“Notification of the rules will take time. We will try
to do it at the earliest,” Mahajan said to TOI when asked if the rules under
RERA will be notified in the coming days.

The new regulatory authority was meant to end the
uncertainty for home buyers, bring transparency and protect buyers from
unscrupulous builders.